Seoul City Councilor Eunju Lee: "Seoul City Neglects Oversight as Largest Shareholder of T-money"

Rep. Lee stated, "Ahead of the end of the 2nd phase transportation card system, Seoul City should reflect on the past controversies over T-money's monopoly and the recurrence of collusive contracts," and urged, "For the upcoming 3rd phase transportation card system, we ask for a more transparent and proactive approach, and we will closely monitor the process."

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Seoul Metropolitan Council Transportation Committee member Eunju Lee (Democratic Party, Nowon 2) pointed out problems with the current Seoul city transportation card project during the 298th regular session in a meeting with the Urban Transportation Office and T-money, urging Seoul city to exercise more thorough management and supervision over T-money, the project operator.

T-money started in July 2004 alongside the restructuring of Seoul's public transportation system and has been responsible for building and settling the Seoul city transportation card system to date.

According to the implementation agreement drawn up when Seoul city and T-money began the second phase of the transportation card project, the project expiration is defined as "the point when the durability period ends," which can be interpreted in various ways, raising concerns about potential disputes over the project termination deadline.

In particular, Councilor Lee stated, “While Seoul city and T-money claim, without concrete evidence, that the system’s durability period, which is the project termination deadline, is 10 years, the related Goods Management Act specifies the durability period of the main equipment of the settlement system, the computer server, as 6 years. This results in a 4-year difference in each project expiration date, so it is necessary to establish clearer standards through consultation with specialized institutions.”

According to Article 16-2 of the Goods Management Act, the Public Procurement Service chief notifies the useful life of goods and can adjust the useful life in consultation with the Public Procurement Service if application is difficult. The useful life announced by the Public Procurement Service in 2018 specifies the useful life of a "computer server" as 6 years.

Additionally, Councilor Lee demanded strong measures from Seoul city regarding collusion among companies during the second phase of the transportation card project in 2013, revealed by the Fair Trade Commission’s investigation, and requested institutional improvements to prevent such incidents in the future.

In April 2018, the Fair Trade Commission uncovered collusion between two companies participating in the bidding for the "terminal operation management system" project during the second phase of the transportation card system project, issuing corrective orders and imposing fines.

Councilor Lee criticized T-money’s refusal to submit requested documents amid the controversy over the acquisition process of the SensePass business rights, stating that this act undermines the purpose of the administrative audit and proves that Seoul city has no substantial influence over T-money.

Councilor Lee pointed out, “It is a wrong act that Seoul city, despite being the largest shareholder of T-money, has been negligent in its management and supervision,” urging that T-money guarantee public interest as a settlement organization under Seoul city and actively cooperate with the Seoul Metropolitan Council and Seoul city.

Finally, Councilor Lee said, “Ahead of the end of the second phase transportation card system, Seoul city should reflect on the controversies over T-money’s monopoly operation and the occurrence of collusive contract structures like those mentioned earlier,” adding, “I urge a more transparent and proactive approach in building the upcoming third phase transportation card system and will closely monitor the process.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.